Apple created the successful online model for music downloads and changed the face of the music industry. No one else did. They didn’t even get it at the time. You’re about to see the same with other media, any time, anyhwere. And still, no one else gets it.
It’s also a USB peripheral device, not a hub. That’s a difference that is not appreciated, yet. It’s the first out-of-the-box completely untethered device with enough screen real estate to provide some approximation of the full “internet” experience. It’s about as large as you’re going to get with a fully portable device. Combine all this with the best touchscreen interface in the industry, and there are quite a few interesting possibilities.
Say what you will about Jobs, he’s a control freak, he’s this or he’s that, but one thing he’s remained true to for his entire professional life is the philosophy that he espoused with the original Mac. He’s fundamentally subversive in favor of putting computing power in the hands of people. That does not always mean literal computing power, or peripherals, or any established construct. It can mean a disruptive, innovative application of existing technologies and networks.
There’s a Zen aspect with the man; he prefers elegance in the sense of idealized form with no excess. You’ve seen it with the then-bold move, of removing the floppy disk drive. You’re seeing the same squawking today and for the same reason. There’s nothing there with this device that does not need to be there, with the exception of 3G. I question the absence of it, but there are product rollout schedules to uphold and federal agencies move in their own time, so I suppose I understand.
Wait and see.
What about the lack of “standard” interfaces...USB, firewire, etc.? Just nuts.